Scrolls of the Dead Sea: an ancient Bible or evidence of the existence of a "second Jesus"?

Sometimes religious historical finds give rise to more strife than happy discoveries.

This was also the case with the mysterious scrolls of the Dead Sea, which have already been repeatedly called a "historical bomb", put under all existing Christian beliefs.

A wonderful discovery of the Qumran manuscripts

In 1947, adolescents from the semi-literate nomadic tribe of taamirs grazed goats on the western bank of the Jordan River. Some of the livestock scattered, and the boys went on a quest. In the caves of Qumran during the searches they saw ancient clay jugs. Deciding that there is hidden gold, in search of easy money, the Bedouins smashed them.

One of the eyewitnesses of the excavations told how it was:

"The shepherds were cousins ​​to each other. One of them, named Juma Muhammad Khalil, threw stones at the opening of one cave in the rocks west of the Qumran plateau. One of the stones hit the cave break and smashed something inside. In it he found ten clay vessels, about two feet high (60 cm) each. To his annoyance, all the vessels, except for two, were empty. One of the two vessels was filled with mud, and the other contained three scrolls, two of which were wrapped in linen cloth. Later these scrolls were identified as a list of Isaiah's biblical book, the Bedouins found four more scrolls: a collection of psalms or hymns, another incomplete list of Isaiah, a scroll or the Charter of War and the Apocrypha of Genesis. "

They did not have material values, but there was something more important: written religious monuments in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. They became shocking because all the Christian works found earlier were written on boards and stones. Amazing Qumran manuscripts are also inscribed on soft materials, folded into scrolls and hidden from prying eyes.

From 1947 to 1956, the governments of several countries initiated giant excavations at the site of the first scrolls. A real war unfolded between a scientific expedition and local tribes. Bedouins were ready to kill for the sake of the first to get new records. They did not consider them valuable - they immediately resold them to scientists for impressive amounts for profit. A total of 190 scrolls were bought and found in different condition.

The first scrolls scientists did not see right away: those that Juma Muhammad Khalil and his brother found were sold to the clergy. Shepherds of illiteracy decided that they were not of great value and turned to the mediator. He brought them together with Metropolitan Athanasios Jeshua Samuel from St. Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem. At the last moment, the deal almost fell through: the guard monk did not want to let in poorly-clad brothers-shepherds.

Why did the opening of the Dead Sea Scrolls cause so much noise?

Metropolitan tried to find out what he managed to acquire a year after the purchase. All the historians, with whom he tried to contact in Europe, were raising their hands. Two desperate employees of the American School in Jerusalem, William Brownlee and John Trever, suggested that if you take pictures of scrolls, then on the film the inscriptions will become more clear than on the original. Books from calfskin and papyrus were photographed in several copies - today all the photographs are stored in museums around the world.

John Trever quickly realized what a miracle in front of him: among the records, he identified the so-called "discipline book" of the Methodist church. Further study showed that all the scrolls were written by the Qumran Essen community. This Jewish sect arose in the first quarter of the 2nd century BC. The order had rather strict rules, some of which were written in the book of discipline. The Essenes are considered the first Alexandrian Christians.

The scientist, decoding the records, said:

"Their taboos are simple enough, but they are extensive. Of course, they were instructed to honor God and to be fair to everyone. The Essenes were forbidden to oppose the denunciation of lies, betray power and stand out against the background of the rest of the believers with the help of clothes or ornaments. The dogmas of the hidden teachings were forbidden to anyone to spread, as well as to use hypocritical vows. "

What is written on the unique scrolls?

After full study of all found written religious artifacts, scientists divided all the texts according to their content. Any person will be unspeakably surprised by the coverage of different spheres and stages of the development of religion that have fallen on the scrolls:

The Qumran records helped to make an incomparable discovery, an exact date for writing the Old Testament. Previously, Christians and Jews believed that it was composed between 1400 BC. and 400 BC. The Qumran scrolls say that the Old Testament was completed in 150 BC, after which "no record was added to it." The results of laboratory studies of records could not disprove their reliability.

Even more stunning was the find among the scrolls of the only complete book of the Bible in the world - the Qumran scroll of the prophet Isaiah, written in 125 BC. It is impossible to imagine the spectrum of emotions of scientists who took for the first time the surviving documents - witnesses of such antiquity!

Why did the scrolls become objectionable to the Church?

All the known denominations of the Christian Church and hear nothing want to recognize the Qumran scrolls as a religious relic. The clergy are not ready to put up with the content of the texts compiled by the Essenian sect. They figure a certain "teacher of righteousness", which the community dwellers worshiped on a par with Jesus. In some of the scrolls, he is even referred to as the "second Messiah", which contradicts the ideas of Christianity.

The texts describe the Messiah who the believers expected, according to the Essenes. He was to become a prominent political and military leader, so the appearance of Christ allegedly disappointed them. Only Isaiah contains a prophecy of a different kind: the Messiah will be born of a virgin and voluntarily accept mortal sufferings for the sins of men. Which of the books can be trusted, if the authenticity of each of them is beyond doubt?